Far Cry 3 Dev Talks Hunting, Wildlife, Unpredictable Gameplay

Far Cry 3 is definitely shaping up to be exciting, and after recently playing it at rAge we’re looking forward to the full game. And now, to make our wait feel a bit longer, lead game designer Jamie Keen is teasing us about some gameplay elements, such as hunting, the wildlife and the dynamic world.

Keen spoke a little about shark hunting, and how the challenge is part of the fun.

“Some of the shark skin stuff that you have to go and get. You think ‘oh I have to kill a shark’ but you dive into the shark’s world and suddenly think ‘how am I going to do this?’. Go and hunt a shark? It’s a challenge”.

He then elaborated on the wildlife element, and how it plays a bigger part than simply being for show.

“Having wildlife is a real challenge for us, we need to make sure that when we get into the world it behaves in the way that it would normally behave. We have to have animals that react like animals would in the world. If we have a tiger, we need it to do what a tiger would do”.

“I think the thing that I’m most proud of is the way the systems combine together just to make the world feel alive. The possibilities of interaction with the different human NPC types and the animals on top of that – with the animals then hunting themselves – sometimes you feel like you are walking through a nature documentary. All that life going on around you I think is something really special for Far Cry 3″.

“You end up with hugely emergent situations where we are never quite sure what’s going to happen”.

Keen gave us an example of how Far Cry 3’s wildlife can create surprises and help make the world feel dynamic. His example comes from a recent playtest of the game.

“We were watching the other day and a couple of civilians drove past in a car and nailed one of the rebels on the way through, the rebels got all riled up and starting shooting. They killed off all the civilians but just when all the rebels had finished, a tiger just jumped out the bush and nailed a guy. You end up with gameplay situations that you can never really anticipate, but that add a huge amount of life to the world you are moving through”.